


Resolutions

by merrythanatos



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alive Starks (ASoIaF), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But modern Tywin can be more friendly it's not quite as deadly, F/M, Multi, OOC Tywin in that he's more friendly, Past Abuse, lyanna mormont is not in this story but she's alive, polyamory written by a straight cis extremely single person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:33:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22898803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merrythanatos/pseuds/merrythanatos
Summary: Stark Security is the best Security company in the biz, and Casterly Ltd. only hires the best.On a personal note, Sansa's life is a mess. She left her cheating boyfriend, moved back home, and quit her job. While her family is happy to finally have her working with them at Stark Security, Sansa feels like it is giving up a bit of her independence that she has always desperately craved. Upon moving back home she made a list of resolutions: No more dates, Get her own place within the year, Start that blog she has been wanting to write, and Seriously, no more dating.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Jaqen H'ghar/Arya Stark, Jaqen H'ghar/Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Tywin Lannister/Sansa Stark
Comments: 31
Kudos: 134





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be working on What Doesn't Kill You, but I've been on a Modern AU kick recently so I started something new. Given how bad I am at updating regularly, oh no, am I right? Here's hoping you like this, and wish me luck on concentrating and just writing these two. Don't let me start on that third one I have in my google drive drafts, okay?

Winterfell was, for once, quiet and peaceful when suddenly the front door burst open and subsequently slammed shut.

“It’s official! I am swearing off men forever, and if I ever try to go back on that you have my full permission to wallpaper my room with my old medical bills and ground me until I come to my senses!” Sansa yelled through the house, not knowing where her family was and wanting to be sure they heard her. Dropping her bags by the entryway, she made her way through the house and continued her diatribe.

“Love is a farce, and men are all monsters, and Robb, if you’re here, that might include you, I haven’t decided yet!” Robb, in fact, was not at Winterfell, as all superfluous family members had been shooed out of the house as the Starks had coffee with an important guest.

“Someone call Theon! I need to talk to Yara and see about becoming a lesbian! Or, do you think the convent would want to update their tech? I could be their resident IT person, no charge, all they have to do is keep all men away from me… oh.” Sansa stopped suddenly upon rounding the corner to the sitting room and seeing that the Starks were not alone. Ned and Catelyn, and for some reason Arya, were having coffee with Stark Security’s newest VIP client and Casterly Ltd. CEO, Tywin Lannister, and upon her entry all eyes were on Sansa.

“I apologize, I was not aware we had company. I’ll just...” Sansa could feel herself turning red as she quietly apologized, and she spun out of the room mid sentence. Catelyn sighed and set her coffee on the side table.

“I better go make sure she’s alright.” She said, standing and offering Tywin an apologetic smile.

“Harry again?” Ned asked her as she made to leave.

“Baelish, actually. Poor dear never catches a break.” And with that she was gone. Ned shot a look towards his younger daughter.

“What did that fink do now?” He barked out. Arya shrugged.

“She went back to Mockingbird to quit today, I told her to just email it but she said that was unprofessional and she wanted to clean out her desk, so whatever. Sounds like he ramped up the creep levels now that she’s leaving. Let me read you her text. “He cornered me when I was boxing up my effects, tried to refuse my resignation and touched me and looked at me inappropriately.” So I think it’s safe to say he was pretty gross if Sans admitted to that much of it. And I already asked, no, she won’t let me string him up by the nuts. She’s sticking with her nonviolence policy when it comes to these creeps. Gods know why, they sure don’t have any problems with violence.” 

“Arya!” Ned admonished, glancing at Tywin, who was watching the proceedings with interest. “We don’t physically assault anyone, got it?” Arya merely shrugged noncommittally, but was saved from any further requests for acquiescence by their guest.

“And how many creeps are there, exactly? Your daughter might be too old for the grounding she demanded earlier, but she’s surely too young to have suffered too much heartbreak.” Tywin inquired with a look of curiosity.

“It’s not heartbreak, it’s abuse is what it is.” Arya stated. “And she’s had shit luck since she was thirteen. First Joffrey, then Ramsay, now Harry and Baelish. And those are just the ones that were serious. I mean, gods, Sandor just up and faked his death, who even does that? And yet that barely even registers on the destroying Sansa scale.” 

“Joffrey?” Tywin asked after a moment’s pause. He watched as Arya and Ned’s eyes widened in remembrance. 

“Shit, he’s your grandson isn’t he?” Arya sighed. “He doesn’t work for you does he? I was going to get Sansa to work with me on Casterly’s security tech shit, but I can’t do that to her if he’s going to be there.” Tywin’s eyes narrowed as he tried to recall any mention of his grandson dating a Stark, but he came up blank. 

“What did that little shit do to your daughter, Ned? If it was serious I should have been made aware of it.” Ned sighed.

“They were in a relationship for several years. From what we can tell it started out as a normal teenage relationship, but over time Sansa started withdrawing, hiding things. We had no idea how bad it had gotten until we got a call from the hospital after his sixteenth birthday party.” Both Ned and Arya shuddered, and then Arya took over.

“For his sixteenth birthday he decided he wanted something Sans wouldn’t give him, so he had his goons beat her bloody. She was found in an alley, broken ribs, puffed up face, the works.”

“Why did you not press charges?” Tywin interrupted, but was met with twin scoffs.

“Cersei informed us in no uncertain terms that if we pressed charges she would rip the Stark reputation to shreds and her son would walk away scot free.” Ned shook his head, seemingly having issues meeting Tywin’s eyes. “Sansa was just trying to recover, she didn’t want to be dragged through the media on top of that.” Tywin grunted, not happy with the situation, but understanding it. Not only would Sansa have had to go through a grueling and fruitless trial, Stark Security likely would have been ruined as well, all in the pursuit of justice that he was certain Cersei would have bribed her way out of.

“I cannot turn back time and fix their behavior, but I can make my grandson’s life a hell now. As well as Cersei’s. I am afraid the two of them will have only gotten worse since then, it is high time I do something about it.” At this Arya grinned.

“Well that’s one down, three to go. Dad, let me know when I can off Ramsay and I’ll put together a team. I’ve already got a plan to ruin Harry. Bran’s got a lockdown on all his social, he’s going to rue the day he messed with me. We can leave Baelish to Mom, I think.” Arya looked positively gleeful to be planning the demise of Sansa’s villains, but Ned pointed a warning finger at his daughter.

“Stay away from Ramsay. You know what he can do and we are  _ not _ getting involved. With any luck he’s forgotten about her. We don’t need to reopen that bag of cats.” At this Tywin raised an eyebrow.

“Dangerous?” He asked simply.

“Very.” Ned leveled him a look. “We’ve got it covered.” Tywin nodded at him, letting it drop. If Ned Stark said he had it covered it was not his place to question it.

“I regret our first meeting was tainted by her recent experience, if we are to work together I hope we can meet sometime in a less stressful way for her.” Tywin glanced towards the hallway where both Sansa and her mother had disappeared, seemingly for good. 

“Sansa is a consummate professional, I’m sure there will be no problem with you working together.” Ned reassured him. Arya laughed at their seriousness.

“She’ll apologize to you ten times first, and probably turn as red as her hair, but she’s the best at what she does. You want her on this team, trust me Mr. Lannister.” Tywin smirked, but nodded in agreement.

“I will take your word for it, Miss Stark. I will see you both on Monday. Let me know if there is anything else we need to go over before we get started.” Tywin and Ned stood, shook hands and started toward the door, while Arya bolted down the hallway in front of them. By the time the men had made their way to the entryway Arya had her arms full of bags that Sansa had abandoned there in her hasty retreat.

“I swear, these weigh more than I do. What did she pack in these things, bricks?” Arya groaned as she drug herself up the stairs to bring them to Sansa’s room.

“Careful with those, Arya, you don’t want to have to replace any of Sansa’s computers because you couldn’t be bothered to take multiple trips.” Ned cautioned.

“Yeah yeah, I’m fine!” She threw back over her shoulder, even as she stumbled up the stairs. Ned and Tywin grimaced at each other, both well aware how stubborn children, even adult children, could be when it came to practical advice.

Once Ned and Tywin had said their final goodbyes and Tywin’s shadow had disappeared from the frosted glass by the door, Ned turned and sprinted up the stairs. He knew Catelyn could take care of Sansa, but that was his little girl and he’d been wanting to give her a hug since he first heard her distressed voice projected across the house.


	2. A "Relaxing" Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sansa decides to rewrite her first meeting with Tywin

Sansa was determined to enjoy her last day of freedom and alone time to the max, so she set her alarm to just after her family would have left the house and got up to make herself a breakfast fit for a Queen. Turning her music up, she danced her way through making waffles, sausage and scrambled eggs, pouring herself glasses of milk and orange-pineapple juice before sitting down to enjoy her feast. She took this time to go over the to-do list she made when she had moved back to Winterfell.

  * _No Men._



Well that wasn’t so much a to-do item as it was a to-don’t, so it couldn’t exactly be crossed off.

  * _Get my own place this year._



Again, not really something to be crossed off. She reflected that maybe her list making skills were subpar if the items on it were going to be this unhelpful.

  * _Spend time with Ric._



YES. She definitely had done that, having picked him up from school every day this week and spending one on one time with him until the rest of the family came home. It felt like a cop out, crossing something like that off a list, but she reached for a pen and drew a line through it nonetheless.

  * _Decide what to do about Baelish._



Ah, that one was her mother’s idea. Cat thought she had a legal case for sexual harassment against him, but Sansa wasn’t so sure. The emails and chats she had were uncomfortable at best, but weren’t concrete proof of harassment, and she had never recorded their in-person interactions. She knew Stark Securities was going to terminate all business dealings with Mockingbird, wouldn’t that be enough? She made a note to talk to her mother about it again.

  * ~~_Destroy Harrold_~~.



Done, and she hadn’t needed to lift a finger. Turns out, between Bran’s scary computer skills and Arya’s scary need for vengeance, her siblings made a terrifying duo. They had flooded his social media accounts with photos of his infidelity and poor decisions (aka sex tapes and drug usage), hijacked his Mockingbird info page and replaced it with proofs of his unethical and possibly illegal business practices, and sent him a copy of a surveillance video they had dug up of him attacking Sansa, as insurance that he would leave her alone. A major plus of them going for his shady workplace habits was that it also put his Uncle Petyr in a bind: he had to either fire his nephew or stick his neck out for the shady lug. Sansa shook her head as she grinned at the item she had crossed off her list days ago. Her siblings were ridiculous, but they were her favorite little shits.

  * _Start blog._



And there it was. The item on the list that she could get started on, wanted to start on, should have started on already, and yet, she felt stuck. She had minored in creative writing, but since she graduated she had worked strictly in IT fields and let her writing fall by the wayside. She longed to flex her creative muscles somehow, and felt that a blog would be an easy way to get started, but each idea she brainstormed felt more impossible than the next. First she thought she would stick to fiction and short stories, but she hadn’t written fiction in a while and had no great ideas for prompts nor for gaining an audience. She rather liked the idea of following in Julia Child’s footsteps and writing about adventures in the kitchen, but now that she lived at Winterfell with her family she didn’t have her own kitchen to experiment in and she didn’t really want a live audience as she tried something new. What she really dreamed of doing someday was create her own travel blog where she could travel the world and write about new cultures, exotic foods and spectacular sights. At present though, this felt like the most impossible of dreams, as she had barely been outside of New Westeros City, and had never traveled outside of Westeros at all. She couldn’t imagine starting a blog about travel and only writing about NWC or Vale sites, but she also couldn’t imagine writing about something that didn’t interest her. Hence her standstill.

Well, that was enough of this useless list. If Sansa wanted to take some time for herself then she would just have to let herself be less than extremely productive, and that would be fine. Except… she was going to start working on Casterly’s security upgrades on Monday and she still hadn’t apologized to Mr. Lannister for her unprofessional first impression, and that didn’t sit well with her. They were going to be working together and she needed to be sure they were on the same, professional page. With that thought in mind, Sansa cleaned up her breakfast mess and started on some baking. A good batch of cookies always smooths the way, and she could use the time it took them to bake to figure out what she was going to say. Perhaps she should try to sneak through the building, call it a test of their current security. Or should she just put a note with the cookies and leave them with the secretary? No, she wouldn’t be a coward. She would look him straight in the eye and apologize. And then she would take herself to a movie and stuff her face with popcorn as a reward for being an adult about it.

Sansa still hadn’t perfected her script for re-meeting Tywin Lannister by the time she finished her batch of cookies, so she decided to whip up some brownies to go with them. Once those finished and she had plated a combo of the two desserts for her soon-to-be boss she decided she was as ready as she would ever be, and readied herself to make an appearance at Casterly without embarrassing herself further. She rehearsed the entire drive there.

“'Hi, Mr. Lannister? I’m Sansa.’ No, he knows that. ‘Sansa Stark, good to meet you Mr. Lannister.’ No! We’ve met, sort of. I could just go with ‘nice to finally meet you properly.’ Does that sound too stuffy? I could do with some stuffy I guess.”

Finally, Sansa found herself parked at Casterly, walking into the large, glass lobby. Looking around she noticed the security desk that she would soon become intimately familiar with, and the single man staffing it. She scoffed inwardly as she held her head high and walked like she knew where she was going through the lobby and into the elevator. As expected, no one questioned her; she didn’t even need a badge to ride the elevator up to the top floor! She would get to Tywin Lannister’s office unannounced with no sneaking necessary. Embarrassing really. Despite not having visited Casterly before, Sansa was familiar enough with office layouts that she was able to deduce the location of Tywin’s office, and in no time she was standing at a desk outside his closed door.

“I’m here to see Mr. Lannister, please.” Sansa politely announced to his assistant. The startled woman looked at her in confusion as she looked between Tywin’s closed office door and his blank appointment book.

“I’m sorry, I don’t seem to see your appointment. What was your name?” Sansa flashed her winning smile at the poor woman, feeling a bit bad for ambushing her like this.

“Sansa Stark, from Stark Security. We’ll be here in full force on Monday but I came by a bit early to touch base with Mr. Lannister.” She wasn’t lying, exactly, she was just being a bit rude, which, in hindsight, was not like her at all.

“Miss Stark, of course. I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware you were coming.” Sansa really hoped Tywin shared the cookies she brought with his very nice secretary.

“Right this way, I’ll let him know you’re here.”  
Sansa stood a little ways behind her unwitting accomplice as she knocked on Tywin’s door before opening it a crack and announcing that his guest was here. Sansa couldn’t see his face at the announcement, but his voice betrayed no emotion as he called for her to be shown in. She thanked the woman politely for helping her and walked into the office, head held high and container of cookies surreptitiously held in her left hand.

“Good afternoon Mr. Lannister. Nice to finally meet you properly. Sansa Stark.” Tywin had risen at her entrance and shook her hand across his desk with a slightly bemused expression on his face.

“Miss Stark. It is indeed. How can I help you?” The man didn’t waste any time cutting to the chase did he? Sansa set the container of cookies on the edge of his desk and tapped them lightly.

“I stopped by today both to introduce myself and to apologize for the unfortunate incident earlier this week. I am usually much more composed than that and it was unprofessional.” Sansa was proud of herself for maintaining her composure through her decided upon apology and was relieved to see Tywin’s face merge into a slight smile.

“No apology necessary, Miss Stark. Though if those are indeed some of your baked goods, I have been told only a fool would turn down such a treasure.” Sansa gave a small laugh, slightly embarrassed but mostly flattered that her family had apparently told him about her.

“I brought you some cookies and brownies in hopes of bribing you into thinking better of me. Though, given that I nearly gave your assistant a stroke sneaking up here like I did, I would appreciate it if you would share them with her as well.” Tywin laughed and nodded in agreement before a confused expression crossed his face.

“How were you able to get up here?” He asked. Sansa looked at him gravely as she answered.

“Your security is atrocious, Mr. Lannister. You should really do something about that. I can recommend an excellent consulting firm, if you’d like.” The gleam in her eyes as he shook his head at her made his heart clench as he realised this short conversation was the most he had enjoyed himself in a long while. He cleared his throat and decided to take a chance.

“Would you like to join me at the cafe down the street for a late lunch? They serve a superb Monte Cristo.” Sansa tilted her head at the invitation, watching, evaluating. She soon acquiesced and allowed him to lead the way to Hotpie’s, an establishment that she would not think to find Tywin Lannister patronising, but was actually quite charming. They kept the conversation light as they ordered their food and sat at a table by the window, getting to know each other and staying professional. After a bit Tywin decided an open and honest approach might be best, despite any discomfort the necessary conversation topic might cause.

“I wanted to assure you, Miss Stark, my grandson is not welcome at Casterly for any reason. In fact, I believe there was a tiered threat security setup promised in your father’s presentation. It would not be out of line to use him as a trial run of sorts; you could show off your firm’s tech and we could keep a potential... embarrassment off the premises at the same time.” Sansa let out a startled laugh and could not keep an embarrassed flush from her face.

“Arya told you didn’t she?” Tywin inclined his head slightly. “She told you about more than just Joff though, didn’t she?” A pause, and then another nod. Sansa hid her face in her hands. “Gods, Arya! I am so sorry about her Mr. Lannister, there was no reason for her to burden you with all of that.” Here Tywin interrupted her.

“You are not a burden, Miss Stark, and I admit to having been somewhat curious as to your ultimatum about the male sex. I believe your sister was attempting to defend you, in her own way. And I am grateful that she alerted me to my family’s own behavior. If they were that bad without my notice, the fact that they have been dispicable enough for me to avoid them of late tells me they have only gotten worse.” Tywin raised his eyebrows at her slightly embarrassed smile. “Do tell me, though, where did you land on your brother Robb being a monster? Last I heard you were undecided.” Sansa groaned quietly and once again covered her face as she felt herself turn bright red. After a moment she looked back up at him with a small grin.

“Actually, I didn’t feel it was my place to judge… so I called two of his exes to weigh in.” Tywin let out a surprised laugh before silently imploring her to continue.

“He’s still on good terms with them both, actually, so it wasn’t even that awkward. And they agreed: Robb may be dumb as a sack of bricks, but he’s a good person at heart.” Both Tywin and Sansa laughed at that, Tywin being familiar enough with the eldest Stark sibling to understand the sentiment even if he would never have categorized Robb as ‘dumb’ himself. The boy was young yet, and if his exes thought he was good hearted there was hope for him yet.

“Well I am glad to hear that there is hope for us men yet, my Lady.” Tywin’s eyes gleamed as their laughter died out. “I thank you for a delightful lunch, Miss Stark. As far as first meetings go, this has been quite amicable.” Sansa let out a small exasperated sigh, but smiled in return.

“Yes, I am glad I stopped by today to meet you. For the first time.” The two of them smirked at each other as they left the cafe together and Tywin walked Sansa back to her car in Casterly’s parking lot. Their casual conversation came easily, as any nerves over their new acquaintance had been erased over lunch. After they bid each other farewell, both Sansa and Tywin found themselves quite looking forward to Monday when they would see each other again.


	3. Manic Monday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stark Security meets the team at Casterly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out, working from home combined with poor time management and a nonexistent sleep schedule equals getting nothing done and nothing but a string of semi related thoughts written. Reading fic has been a lifeline though, so I was inspired to try and make my thoughts coherent once more and update again finally.

#  Chapter 3 - Manic Monday

At a quarter till 8 Monday morning Tywin exited the elevator and walked into his lobby. Ned was old school and would undoubtedly arrive early to meet with him, and judging by the group heading towards him, he was raising his children to do the same. 

"Ned." Tywin offered his hand in greeting. 

"Tywin. Good morning." Tywin grunted in reply, looking over the small group that was not entirely as familiar to him as he expected. 

"Slight change in plans, Tywin, but no need to be alarmed." Ned clapped his hand on the shoulder of the young man beside him. "Meet my nephew, Jon Targaryen. He's one of my best team leads. He's going to be taking over Robb's position here due to my son's elopement and subsequent disappearance over the weekend." Ned grimaced slightly in embarrassment as Tywin raised his eyebrow and stole a glance at Sansa standing on his other side. 

"Elopement you say?" 

"Dumb as a sack of bricks." Sansa shook her head as she smirked at her brother's expense. "You were warned, Tywin." Ned did a double take at which daughter exactly had just sassed at Tywin Lannister as Arya gaped at her sister in disbelief and Jon fought a grin fairly unsuccessfully. Jon recovered first and stuck his hand out. 

"Good to meet you, Mr. Lannister. I've been brought up to speed and am ready to go, though to be honest you've got the best team in the world working for you. They make this job easy."

"Don't sell your cousin short, Mr. Targaryen. I hear that despite his shortcomings he still has a good heart." Sansa was not alone in her surprised laugh, though her smile was the brightest for it and Tywin couldn't help shooting her a smug grin. 

"Did I miss something?" interjected Ned. "Since when were you friends with each other? Did you all schedule a meeting without me again?" Sansa laughed softly and shook her head in mock condescension. 

"I'm a very friendly person, Ned. You know this." 

Arya, picking up on her sister's rare attitude, joined in. 

"Sansa's a well connected woman, Eddard. She knows everybody." With matching grins the sisters turned and walked toward the group of Stark employees gathering near the security desk, leaving their exasperated father behind. 

"They're incorrigible, the lot of them. But all the employees call me Ned, and Legal says it would be a double standard to single my children out and forbid it." Both Jon and Tywin smirked at him, but Jon leaned in and slapped him on the back, giving him a knowing look. 

"Does Aunt Cat know you refer to her as Legal then, Uncle Ned?" Jon gave a gentle laugh and joined his cousins as Ned tilted his head back to sigh at the ceiling. After a moment Ned looked back at his still smirking companion. 

"You work with family, Tywin. How am I supposed to stay sane?" Ned looked almost pleadingly at Tywin who was merely shaking his head. 

"You could always do what I do and keep starting new companies to get away from them." He said wryly. The two of them turned and started walking toward the mixed group of employees awaiting them. 

"That would explain a lot actually. Cat was wondering why you needed a third company." Ned mused. 

"Officially, when asked, I needed a third company so I would have one for each of my children." 

"Except none of your children work at Casterly." Ned noted. 

"Ah, yes, I am hoping they might not notice that I even created Casterly Ltd. for a while. Give me some peace and quiet for a change." The two men smirked at each other in understanding as they reached their employees and prepared to get started. 

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Arya grinned at her sister as they stalked away from the men and enjoyed the camaraderie that they shared now that they had grown out of their hating-each-other-for-no-reason phase. 

“Sans, you know I got your back no matter what, but you are going to tell me what that was, right?” Sansa returned her grin and contemplated telling her sister no just to rile her up, but couldn’t commit to withholding anything from Arya.

“I ended up going to lunch with Tywin last Friday when I stopped by to bring him some apology cookies. Oh I forgot, I’m mad at you! You told him about my dating history!” Sansa hit her sister on the arm as Arya pretended to dodge.

“I had to Sans! He was looking at you like you were crazy! And he needed to know about Joff, he even thanked me for letting him know.” Sansa rolled her eyes but continued.

“Well, he was nice about it, very gentlemanly actually, but you’re lucky! Anyway, our conversation about it lead to him being curious about whether I decided Robb was a monster, and I told him about my calls to Jeyne and Talisa and them deciding he had a good heart even though he’s dumb as a sack of bricks. He found that quite amusing.” Both sisters snickered at their older brother, but their amusement faded into quiet contemplation about Robb and Roslin’s elopement.

“Gods, Mom’s going to kill him for not letting her plan a wedding.” Arya decided.

“At least she likes Roslin. If he’d pulled this stunt with Talisa she would’ve had an aneurysm.” Sansa whispered in reply, making Arya snort in agreement. Jon caught up to them just in time to catch the drift of their conversation and ended up chuckling softly.

“Why a sack of bricks?” He asked his cousin with a smirk.

“Hey, don’t ask me, it was Jeyne who used the phrase first, Talisa and I just agreed with her.” Sansa held up her hands slightly in surrender.

“Right. And Tywin Lannister was in on this conversation was he?” Jon raised his eyebrow at Sansa and Arya’s shared look and decided he didn’t really need to know. “Let me know if you hear anything from Robb, kay? I have a feeling the newlyweds will be needing a place to stay once they resurface. At the very least my place has fewer disappointed parents living in it than Winterfell.”

“Shit, you don’t even know where he is? Theon’s all butthurt Robb didn’t tell him he was eloping, and now you don’t know anything either? Are we sure he wasn’t just abducted?” Arya was whining, but there was a part of her that almost believed it.

“He left a voicemail, Arya. A very clearly manically happy and not under duress voicemail. He wasn’t kidnapped, he’s just an idiot.” Sansa closed her eyes and tried to refocus. “I’m glad you’re here, Jon. You bring a level headedness to this project that we desperately need.” Jon smiled softly at her.

“Thanks Sansa.”

“Hey everyone, it’s just after 8, if I could have your attention please.” Ned’s voice rang out authoritatively without him having to yell; a skill shared only by Jon and envied by all of the Stark children. “If I could get the Starks, Cassels, Jon, Theon and Jaqen from my team up here. From Casterly: Mr. Payne, Mr. Blackwater, and Mr. Baratheon. The rest of you, on deck.”

The selected group all stepped forward to form a loose circle, including Rickon, who knew full well he was support and not leadership but wanted to be included with the rest of his family. 

“Jon is handing out a packet of information that overviews the next 5 month plan, but for right now if you could look at the chart on the first page, we’ll get introductions out of the way.” Ned waited for everyone to receive their folder before starting.

“My name is Ned Stark. You’ll notice my name’s not on the chart, but the company is named after me so I’ll try not to be hurt by that.” The small group chuckled and relaxed a bit at the lightening of the mood. Ned had found that consultations could get difficult if the existing employees felt the need to fight for control despite the fact that they were brought in specifically to be in charge for a time, so he always ensured to make the environment as friendly as possible so there would not be any antagonistic power struggles. 

“This here is Jon Targaryen. He’ll be the team lead here so you should be seeing a lot of him.” Jon raised his hand slightly and waved sheepishly.

“Alright, let’s go according to the chart shall we?”

Jon - Team Lead

| 

**Security**

| 

**Tech**  
  
---|---|---  
  
**Day to Day**

| 

Cassels / _Podrick + Bronn_

| 

Theon / _Gendry_  
  
**Training**

| 

Jaqen

| 

Sansa  
  
**Personnel / Upgrades**

| 

Arya

| 

Bran  
  
“Rodrik and Jory Cassel, father and son duo extraordinaire. The Cassels will be overseeing the day to day operation of the security team until we get everyone organized and trained up. Eventually Podrick Payne and Bronn Blackwater here will be taking over those duties so the four of you will become practically inseparable for a time, get used to each other.” The men grinned and shook each other’s hands, and it didn’t escape Ned’s notice that Podrick looked more relieved than anything to cede control of the department to the Cassels. He recalled Tywin telling him that Podrick had been the one who exposed the corruption in the security department that necessitated this project in the first place, and that he had been promoted because of his loyalty and dedication over actual seniority in the position.

“In the Tech department, Theon Greyjoy will be seeing to the day-to-day management pending the training of Gendry Baratheon. Which, Gendry, any relation?” Gendry gave an embarrassed grin.

“Robert gave me the looks and the name, but we’re not family except genetically.” He explained.

“Does that make Tywin your step-grandfather-in-law or something?” Arya asked, as though it wasn’t highly inappropriate to comment on. Both Gendry and Tywin froze and stared at her, eyes wide. 

"No, Arya, it would  _ not _ . Gods." Sansa slapped her sister's arm and gave Jaqen a pleading look to control his girl. His face showed no particular emotion, but she could swear she saw a glint of amusement in his eyes. 

"What? We were all thinking it." Arya defended herself. 

"I wasn't." Said Gendry. 

"To be honest I had never given any thought to our… relationship… before." Tywin started slowly. "Gendry has worked for me a long time, moving to Casterly from King's Landing Digital even, but his accomplishments have been all his own and not due to whatever convoluted relationship you might assign us." 

"I know this name means something to some people, but I honestly don't want anything to do with that man or what his name means. No offense sir." Gendry clarified, and then, worrying he might have offended his boss, reclarified. 

"Alright, sorry for opening that can of worms!" Ned interjected before they got too off track. "Don't worry, son, Arya won't be working directly with you so she should leave you alone for the most part." They all laughed at Arya's little offended 'hey!' before moving on. 

"We officially put Jaqen on training and Arya on personnel, but they work as a team for the most part and the entire security team will come to fear them soon enough." Jaqen nodded at Tywin and his employees in greeting, clearly more subdued than his girlfriend, while she continued to silently bicker with her sister and practically missed her introduction. 

"Which leaves Sansa and Bran on Tech." The two wave. "For the most part Sansa handles the training while Bran organizes the technical upgrades and the two of them work together on personnel. Which leads me to the most important point: you might have noticed that many of us are related. I do not anticipate that being an issue, but if anyone has any concerns with a team member and doesn't feel comfortable speaking to one of their family members about it, technically Theon is not family." Another interjected 'hey!' this time from Theon, and subsequent chuckles all around. "Fair enough. Even that might be uncomfortable. In which case, please bring concerns to Tywin. We won't feel attacked or targeted, and if you do feel comfortable with it feel free to discuss any and all issues with Jon as the team lead, but the most important thing is to have a clear path of communication. Understood? " Ned was glad to see nods and smiling faces from the Casterly employees. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed his youngest shifting uncomfortably at being left out of the introductions. 

"Speaking of my family, my oldest son was supposed to be working with us as well, but he had something come up. Hopefully you won't be working with my wife, as she is the head of our legal department, and most importantly, this here is my youngest, Rickon. He will be working with all of you, no doubt, as he is our most flexible and multi-talented Stark." Ned, Sansa and Jon all beamed at Ric proudly, and Arya punched him in the shoulder as he grinned sheepishly. Next to Ric, Bran was paying cursory attention to the entire situation of course, but his focus was on the datapad in his lap. The Stark team didn't seem bothered by it as they went through their affable introductions, but they all stopped suddenly as he raised his head and said "I'm in." The lights in the building went out, the elevators stopped and the visible computer monitors at the security desk displayed a composite logo of a raven. All eyes were on the young man in the wheelchair. 

"It took me from the beginning of this meeting till now to bring this building to its knees, and all I had was a datapad. My first priority will be to put in a cursory system that would take me at least an hour to get through, before transitioning to a more permanent and robust system. This will be annoying, a lot of work, and will likely disrupt workflow, but as you can see," he paused to hit a few keys on his pad, bringing everything back to normal, "it is necessary."

Tywin felt this demonstration was somewhat dramatic, given that he would have agreed to Bran's plan without it, but he saw how his staff, both in this leadership group and in the larger group yet to be addressed, had reacted to the disruption with genuine fear and recognized the power play for what it was. Bran couldn't intimidate people easily from his wheelchair and likely had to work hard for every ounce of respect, but in one fell swoop he made himself a legend as the truth of this demonstration would trickle through the ranks. Given the smiles on the rest of the Stark team's faces, and the slightly exasperated one on his father's, this appeared to be something he did often. Tywin could only wonder if he always waited until they were already hired, as he could easily utilize this technique to sell the dire need for their services. 

"Now that we're all acquainted," Ned broke into all of their thoughts "how about we get started meeting the rest of the team. Payne, Blackwater, if you wouldn't mind rounding up your men and bringing them over here. Gendry, please do the same but over at the desk. For today Jon, Ric and I will man the security desk while you get introduced and schedules made. Arya, please don't hit anyone today. Sans, keep an eye on Bran if you would. Theon, don't get any ideas." Tywin suppressed a grin at Ned's combination parenting/managing and went over to shake the man's hand. 

"It looks like you have this well in hand, Ned. If you don't need anything else from me?" Ned waved him off. 

"Don't worry about a thing. I know where to find you and vice versa. Just, maybe avoid the conference rooms you assigned to Arya and Jaqen for the next month or so if you don't want to give yourself a heart attack. I wasn't kidding about people coming to fear them."

Shaking his head and giving a backward glance to his newly managed security desk Tywin made his way back up to his office. Things were bound to be interesting around here if this morning was anything to go by, and Tywin was never one who liked being bored.


	4. Death by Pie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gendry is thoroughly confused, Sansa and Theon help him out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter because I had this done, the next part of the main story is not done, and I've not posted in a long time. Sorry ya'll, working from home and slim to no human interaction hasn't been good for my creative head space.

“No but seriously, what’s her deal? Does she hate me? I thought she hated me?”

By day three of the Stark occupation of Casterly, Gendry had become quite comfortable with Sansa and Theon, enough so that they were the ones he came to to complain about Arya.

“It’s like she seeks me out to insult me, but then she winks? And someone’s been leaving those little hand pies from the vending machine on my desk, and I swear I saw her dart around a corner after one appeared. Do you think she’s trying to lull me into a false sense of security? Is she going to poison me with _pie_?” Sansa and Theon smirked at Gendry as he plopped himself into his chair and threw up his hands.

“If she wanted to kill you she’d either challenge you to open combat or ask Jaqen to off you in your sleep. Arya’s never been a big poison person.” Theon’s logic didn’t appear to make Gendry feel any better as his eyes only opened wider before he darted a look toward Sansa.

“She doesn’t hate you, Gendry,” Sansa laughed. “She likes you. She just has an odd way of flirting. Jaqen’s a bit more socially adjusted though, how has he been acting towards you?” Gendry’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“I... what? Why would… they’re together right? Is Jaqen going to kill me because she’s giving me pie? Sansa don’t let her kill me with pie! I like pie just fine but not even blueberry is worth Jaqen hating me. Have you seen him? He could kill me with one hand and a broken leg! I’m going to die!”

Part way through Gendry’s dramatic monologue Jon opened the door to the security lab and stood in the entryway to listen. His face was a mixture of exasperation and amusement as he parsed what was likely going on.

“Um, sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to let you know that Bran is up in Tywin’s office for some sort of update. He said you might be expecting him back and asked me to let you know. Now…” Jon raised his hands in a mock surrender and started backing away, “I’ll let Sansa handle the Arya situation, I’m sure you have it well in hand.”

“Oh no you don’t Jon Snowball Targaryen! You get back here!” Sansa cried as Jon darted out, her pen hitting the closed door. “Coward!” Gendry had his head down on the desk and let out a pathetic moan.

“Even Jon is scared of her, it’s hopeless, I’m a dead man.”

“Okay, yes, everyone is scared of Arya, but this really isn’t what you think, man.” Theon tried to comfort Gendry by laying a hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t appear to have noticed. Sansa sighed and rubbed the middle of her forehead.

“I don’t know why I have to explain her, it’s her relationship. Seven hells.” She muttered to herself. “Alright Gendry. Look, she’s not trying to kill you, Jaqen’s not going to kill you. I think they _both_ like you. They’re polyamorous. Or they were? Are? It’s just the two of them right now, but they used to have a girlfriend, or Jaqen did, I don’t know if she and Arya were together, it’s confusing, she doesn’t explain anything to me I don’t know why I have to try to explain it.” Sansa waved her hands around, flustered by trying to explain a relationship that had never fully been explained to her, so Theon took pity on her.

“They’re still polyamorous even though they aren’t currently in a polyamorous relationship. And Faye was both of their girlfriend, but she and Arya didn’t have the same sort of relationship that they both had with Jaqen. I think she’s mostly straight, while Jaqen is pan.” Sansa nodded absentmindedly as she berated herself for forgetting Faye’s name. She had only met her the once, but the three of them had been together for a year before she moved away, it was really unacceptable of her.

“Yes. Exactly. That. Hence why I asked how Jaqen has been acting towards you, Gendry. Arya tends to forget that people need explanations about these sorts of things, but Jaqen usually notices when someone is out of their depth.”

“Oh!” Was all Gendry could say for a moment. He sat and looked between Sansa and Theon, a surprised look on his face as he tried to recall his interactions with Jaqen. At the time he had been distracted by Jaqen’s serious face and deadly body, but thinking back on it, he had been both apologetic for Arya’s behavior and extremely courteous towards him. He hadn’t overthought Jaqen holding the door open for him even though he was slightly far away, especially after Arya had used the opportunity to berate him for being slow. And now that he thought about it, he had bought a hand pie from the vending machine the first day the Starks were there, and Jaqen was the only person in the breakroom at the time.

“Huh.” Gendry didn’t seem to be able to form words for awhile, until suddenly he asked, “Is Jon’s middle name really Snowball?”


	5. Catch Up Arya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya and Jon have a quick end of week chat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another quick chapter. Hope y'all don't mind the tiny ones instead of waiting longer for long ones. Something about it makes it feel easier to keep writing if it's not a continuous long chapter.

"Jonathan Snowbellina!" 

"None of that is my name." Jon interrupted, but Arya continued as though she hadn't heard him. 

"It's the end of our first week and I've got three! Count them, three! Names for you. Two involved in the corruption scheme so they're easy, and one that I got a bad feeling about." Jon's eyebrows rose in interest as he reached for the files Arya held out to him. Her instincts were usually on point, but they couldn't get rid of someone without a concrete reason. He tossed the two corruption guys' files to the side and focused on the third. 

"Tell me about this bad feeling guy. " He said as he motioned for her to sit down. She remained standing. 

"He gets this attitude with anyone he feels is beneath him, which includes, but is not limited to: younger guys on the team, females on the team regardless of their rank, the nice janitor guy that helped me get my food unstuck from the vending machine. I mean, I'm used to being underestimated, but he won't even give me the time of day. When I say something he just ignores it, and if he does deign to respond to me he addresses Jaqen as though he was the one talking! And you should see the way he leers at Sansa. First class chauvinistic creep that one is." Arya paced and waved her arms around as she made her points, ending front and center with her arms crossed as though expecting an argument. Jon's attention had been caught by what he gathered was the most important point of her rant. 

"Has Sansa noticed? Is she okay?" Jon didn't know how to protect his cousin from all the creeps in the world that seem to find her, but in the workplace he was in charge and he'd be damned if he was going to let her be intimidated on his watch. Arya rolled her eyes at his reaction. 

"No, of course she hasn't noticed, or this conversation would be going very differently right now. Probably with you threatening me because I put Hoat in the hospital or something. Focus, Snowdrop!” Jon ignored her in lieu of actually reading the file she had handed him. Aggravated assault, solicitation, domestic violence, it wasn’t pretty, but he had no recent convictions and no work write ups.

“I’ll talk to Aunt Cat about him before bringing this file to Tywin. Depending on his contract we might need to document his insubordination and inappropriate behavior for a bit before we can dismiss him.” Seeing that Arya was about to protest he held up his hand. 

“We will see him dismissed, you hear me? We just have to make sure it’s done right. Meanwhile, ask Jaqen to keep him away from Sansa, since he’s the only one Hoat will listen to.”

“Har-de-har. We got it covered.” Arya finally sat down, lounging sideways across the chair now that her report was done.

“You meet with Tywin often then? I haven’t seen him around.” She asked.

“We talk about once a day.” Jon shrugged. “Sounds like your dad warned him away from your area, so you wouldn’t have. I think Bran’s been working with him the most. And he and Sansa have been eating lunch together.” He said it so casually that Arya almost didn’t process his words, but after a second delay she bolted upright and leaned forward in her chair.

“What? Talk about burying the lead! I need details Snowbelle! What do you mean eating together, like just the two of them? Here in the building or going out? Wait, are they _going out?_ ” Jon sighed.

“Why can’t you guys just call me Jon like normal people? It’s not my fault Mom loves winter.”

“We’ve been over this, Snow White, we only do it because we love you, now stop stalling! Details!” Jon glared at her for a second before caving to her demands.

“All I know is he ‘accidentally’ brought too much food yesterday so when he returned her tupperware from the cookies she brought him last week they had an ‘impromptu’ picnic. And then today he took her to Hotpie’s as a celebratory end-of-week-one lunch. She was apparently ‘charmed.’ I didn’t ask too many questions.” Jon was glad to see Sansa happy, and he trusted Tywin to be a gentleman, but he didn’t want to think too much about it if he was being honest.

“Well then, lead with Hoat being a creep to Sansa when you talk to him and I bet you fifty bucks he expedites his firing.” Arya grinned as she made to stand.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a sister to go interrogate and a stupid boy to invite to the bar after work and I only have…” Arya pretended to look at her nonexistent watch “... 3 and half more hours to do it in. Better get to it.”

“You are going to do more work today, right?” Jon doubted himself even as he asked.

“Yeah, sure, totally.” Arya was eeking out the door. “Doing work. I’ll get right on that.” As she closed the door Jon could have sworn he heard her mutter: “Amateur.”


	6. A Sisterly Chat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya interrogates Sansa

“Alright, losers, I need to talk to my sister.” Arya barged into the security office, interrupting Theon, Bran, Gendry and Sansa.

“You know,  _ we  _ actually do work around here, squirt.” said Theon, as Sansa was being dragged away.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll let you have her back once we have a nice sisterly chat.” Arya replied. “Oh, and Gendry, you’re coming to Stranger’s Pub with us after work. No excuses.” Sansa was forcefully pushed into the server room at the back of the office, only resisting enough to maintain an appearance of reluctance.

“Oh no, I’m being kidnapped.” Sansa deadpanned. “Whoa is me.”

Arya rolled her eyes at the awful playacting and slammed the door after them, leaving the boys solidly behind.

“Did she just kidnap my supervisor to talk about me behind my back?” wondered Gendry.

“Aren’t I your supervisor?” Theon asked with absolutely no confidence.

“Arya just found out Sansa has been eating lunch with Tywin so she came to interrogate her.” Bran said as he stared at the door his sisters disappeared behind. 

“And you know this how?” Theon asked, again very confused.

“Jon told her about the lunches just before coming here.” Bran answered vaguely, before turning to look Theon in the eye and pointing at a small device in his ear. “I have Jon’s phone bugged.”

“No!” Gendry and Theon both gasped at the same time, drawing closer to the young man in the wheelchair.

“I knew you had to have something!”

“Is that legal?”

“How many bugs do you have, are you bugging me?”

“Is that how you knew Jon would be in a bad mood on Wednesday?”

“Are you bugging Ned? Please tell me you’re bugging your dad.”

Bran looked amused as he was barraged with their questions and typed something on his phone.

“You heard nothing, you saw nothing, you can prove nothing. You’d be wise not to tell Ned about this, but definitely don’t tell mom.” Bran tapped the side of his nose with a smirk. “And believe me, I’ll know if you do.”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“They weren’t dates, we were just eating lunch together. We’re coworkers and we get along. People can spend time together, Arya, not everything is suspicious.”

“Yeah, they can, and when they spend time together and they like each other it’s called a  _ date _ , Sansa.” Sansa and Arya rolled their eyes at each other, both amused at the other’s antics. They were interrupted from their amusement by dual pings from their phones.

_ You should ask the other party if he thought it was a date then  _ \- their phones read. 

“Bran! How are you even eavesdropping on us? Do you have my phone bugged?” Sansa asked the air. 

*ping*

_ Maybe _

“Okay, that’s disturbing.” Arya wrinkled her nose thinking about it.

“Just because you  _ can _ invade every part of our lives doesn’t mean you  _ should,  _ Raisin Bran.” Sansa tried to reason with the omniscient aura of their brother.

*ping*

_ I wasn’t listening to your date, don’t worry _

“That’s not, you know what? I’m getting a new phone. And moving out. And not telling you the address.” Arya snorted at her.

“Like he couldn’t find your new address, please. He’ll know where you’re going to live before you do.” Sansa sighed, rubbing her forehead and closing her eyes in resignation. Suddenly the server room door burst open, revealing Rickon leaning heavily against the doorframe clutching at his side.

“What is this I hear about Sansa going on a date?” He gasped. Arya started cackling at the aghast look on her sister’s face.

“What? Ric, I wasn’t on a date. Who told you it was a date? And why did you run here?”

“It sounded like a date to me, Sans. A picnic? Lunch at a hipster cafe? You said to stop you from dating! We can’t do that if you’re not honest with us about your plans. Remember how all guys are douchebags?” Rickon pleaded with her

“I did not say that word!” Sansa objected. “And it wasn’t a date. And Tywin is not a d-bag.”

“And Hotpie’s isn’t a hipster cafe.” Arya piped up. “It’s more like a relatively unknown but up-and-coming diner.”

“And you didn’t explain the running.” Sansa pointed out, ignoring her.

“Oh, yeah, no, I was just talking to Jon and then Bran texted that you were moving out so I ran over here to make sure you weren’t doing anything you’d regret.” He explained.

“I literally JUST said those words before you barged in here, how did...? You know what, nevermind. Nevermind!” Sansa threw her hands up and marched out of the server room and through the security office.

“I’m going up to Tywin’s office to set up the alerts on Joffrey that we talked about during our very normal, professional lunch. Catch you later, losers.” She called out to everyone she was leaving behind. A moment after disappearing out the door, her hand stopped it from closing and she leaned her head back in.

“Except Gendry, you’re a winner. Never change.” And with that she was gone.


End file.
